JoLeNa {sweet friend}

After talking about friends in my last post, I just couldn't resist not honoring this person in my life...honestly I went back and forth because I didn't want to hurt anyone who has been so wonderful and a part of my life...you know the scenerio:

*you've helped at an event. whether it be for two hours or for two weeks. and you sacrificed so much to be generous with your time. to volunteer or contribute to this event. the event takes place. your sitting at one of the tables. in the back. you think "why didn't i get a table at the front? because I helped. and it's time for the "thank you's." the person behind the podium makes the cliche "i first want to thank ALL the people who helped out at this event because there are too many to name, thank you for your time...blah blah blah" whatever. you really want to know if YOUR gonna have your name called following. and then he/she speaks. names. you eagerly wait to see if yours is called. and with every name that is read. that isn't yours. a sharp pain stabs your heart. hurt. that maybe someone did not appreciate your efforts.*

Am I the only one who does that? Am I the only one that has a brief moment of bitterness that rises up in me and then has to get over it...to wake up and realize that the folks who's names WERE called, like lived off coffee and didn't sleep for 72 hours to make the event happen??

Anyhoo, I'm just tryin' to be "see through" with ya...and I have been known to be a bit sensitive..the darn artist in me...but I am almost positive that everyone else has it way more together than me.

So I have known Jolena for...well, since I moved to Great Falls. She was the second gal I met here. I had just gotten hitched to Dave and HAD to start learning to make GIRL friends. Because honestly, I didn't have any girl friends before I was married. No joke...they were all guys. I have always just got along better with dudes...and no I wasn't a boy crazy kinda gal...just liked things like playin' pool, paintballin' and riding 4-wheelers crazy through the tick infested GA woods. Things that most girls wouldn't do...so when I met a gal that loved to camp and fish but still beamed beautiful femininity...I was like...I want to be her friend. And I did. I feel so blessed to have her in my life. It's super sad that I'm leaving because it's been just recently that I have really been able to spend some time with her. Here's a few reasons I love Jolena:

I love how she helped me remember how fun scrapbooking is. I love that I can freely dote on Edward Cullen without being judged. I love that I can call her at 11pm and chat till 1 am because she's a night owl like me. I love that she brings out the girly in me! It doesn't matter how nasty my feet are, she won't let me leave her house and will give me a pedicure if my toes need pampering. I love her encouragement on parenting. She inspires me to be a better mother. I love our common tastes in candy. Hot tamales! I love that she gives of her time every week to visit the kids at the Juvenile Detention Center...to love on them and tell them how much God loves 'em. I love that she loves me so much, she will tell me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear. I love her heart for God.

Love you Jolena....you are so gorgeous and I'm so thankful for you!

Wowzers!!!

fRienDs & ToEs

...because I have no foes..get it? HAHAHA!

...anyhoo...FRIENDS...i will miss them...

I know I'm gonna still make my phone calls...I have always been pretty good at that. At least every other week, I like to give myself a date with coffee, the phone and whomever answers the ring - on my list of "folks I need to catch up with."

And thank the good Lord for Facebook!!! I know I'm not the best face-booker, but I have to admit that when I do make a mission of creepin' around on there...it's a flippin' affair. I guess I go in spurts with that...and that won't change...

...but to have access to seeing my friends, calling them up with a wild spontaneous hair to do something and getting to laugh with them IN PERSON...THAT is what I will miss.

So, I did say toes for a reason ;) I got my hair done a couple days ago after not going anywhere for E.V.E.R. and a year...Avery Simonsen of True Colors Salon did a FABULOUS job and I have to say that I am completely blown away by her awesome client service. I have never had a stylist call me 24 hours after I get my hair done to inquire how I like it...that was really cool! I also had my toes done. Has anyone else ever heard of glitter toes??? I never did, but I'm up to try anything and WOW! It's like bling for your feet!!! It's a gel and glitter process that's cured so the fun sparkle lasts for 4-6 weeks!!! Seriously, if you wanna do something fun and smile every time you look down at your toesies, you should try this! I hate my feet but LOVE my toes! This pic does NOT do the sparkle justice and so sorry that you have to look at my hobbit feet, but here's what they look like :)

SoLd!!!

Yeppers...we sold our house! I can honestly say that my sweet Lord has orchestrated EVERYTHING out in my favor...in one week:

4/15:

Got an offer on the house

Counter-offered

4/16:

Counter-offer accepted

My agents became dual agents (and it's been wonderful!)

4/17:

kind of remember that we needed a new loan for Texas

got pre-approved for a VA loan

4/18:

Accidentally found another house that was WAY better than the first Texas house I found

4/19:

Put an offer in on THAT house and was told not too get excited because...

it's a foreclosure and...

6 offers, including ours, were on the table after two days of it listing

ran out of printer ink

4/20:

deadline for offers on cool house at 4:30 Central

PROBLEM: realtor in Texas can't read contract because of my stupid lack of ink

TX realtor gets permission to submit offer next day

got new ink but forgot about having only 3 sheets of paper left....ARGH!

back to the store for paper

4/21:

WHEW! got the offer in :)

Had inspection for our house here

Inspection went FABULOUS!

I love our buyer!

4/22:

Dave works on minor repairs from inspection while I crack down on editing

Waiting patiently regarding our offer

they did say 72 hours...

4/23:

getting a little nervous about our offer

consider buying the crap house, flipping it, and making some moolah

but then again it is a crap house...my Aunt said there was literally crap...

to the brim of the toilet...

continuing to ask God to move on the hearts of men in my favor

commercial photoshoot

3 missed calls from my husband on my FRIENDS phone?

call husband back

OUR OFFER WAS ACCEPTED!!!

Praise ya Jesus!!!

We have until Monday to sign the papers they sent us...

until then the bank is still reviewing other offers

4/24:

Scanning in all the papers to my computer

VERY t.i.m.e. c.o.n.s.u.m.i.n.g.

How the heck do I make a pdf from multiple scanned images???

Dave gets the confirmation on his job transfer to Texas

4/25:

went around Great Falls to some of my favorite spots to take pictures...

For FUN

more packing ;)

4/26:

sent pdfs to realtor for the seller/bank to look at and sign

JUST got the word that the bank has signed the papers and...

NO MORE OFFERS are being accepted!!!

So, that is the craziness of my life this last week...but it was SO smooth at the same time! I absolutely am grateful for how awesome the buyer is. She SO appreciates my old home and it's character...that, to me, is priceless! And I am so excited about starting a new chapter of my life in San Antonio...to come into this new home and start making new memories there. This journey isn't over yet, but it's really cool to see how God has worked this all out so perfectly...

Here's my new - well, new to me...it's 24 years old - house...I've never stepped foot in it, but my Uncle said he would want to live there....that's good enough for me :)

We live on a cul-de-sac :)

This is the view right when ya walk in the front door:

My future office...

ps keep in mind my pictures of Great Falls...somethin' special goin' on that wall ;)

looking into the dining room and back there is the kitchen...notice the exposed hallway with chair rail on the top of the picture???...very vintagy AND I can't wait to get some Christmas garland on those stairs ;)

I'm graduating from a bedroom with no closet...to a MASTER bedroom with fireplace, little deck, closet and....

my very own bathroom!!!! I'm so excited!!!

nice sized back yard...Sam is only going to get a small corner to relieve himself on

I know this post is a little long...but I just couldn't withhold any details from ya...because I just had to tell ya how AWESOME everything is flowing and had to share my new home too :)

Happy Monday!!!

hair drying {confessions}

So I was drying my hair this mornin' and the most random thoughts went through my mind...does anybody else think like this when you're drying your hair???

"I bet the 2nd or 3rd generation iPad will have a camera on it and the world will be able to ichat from wherever they want to..."

"I wonder where the phrase 'Dead as a door knob' came from..."

"Coffee..."

"My Lord! I have rainbow hair...I should just go buy me a box of color!"

"Epson R1900 or R2880???? THAT is the question..."

So, yeah, that is a peek into my brain when I go on auto pilot to dry my hair...speaking of crazy tri-colored hair, here's some photos Mr. Matt took of me while we were playing with cameras and shootin' for the fun of it a little over a month ago. I was going for the Anthropology look ergo the crazy poofy hair...He let me have the raws so I could play with the post processing...fun fun fun :)

bReAkInG {eggs, bad habits, and myself}

Lots of fun stuff going on here:

*Showing the house about every day...

*sweatin' bullets "power cleaning" right before 'em...

*Learning new ways to dye Easter eggs (they're SO pretty)...

*Miraculously stopped biting my nails after 20 years of biting 'em

*Goin' to the circus for free, thanks to my kids' winning a coloring contest...

*Shooting the Foothills Banquet and meeting Mr. Mike Huckabee. AWESOME...

*Finally realizing that it's OK to take a day off...

My little rant comes from that last blurb. Many of you awesome photog peeps may know where I'm coming from...or maybe ya'll already have it figured out. Kudos if ya do :) But for me, it's so easy to be consumed every second of the day with what I do since it's so close...

We meet. We shoot. We edit.

...and this is where I sit. For hours. In front of my computer:

culling. processing. retouching. emailing. researching.

deviating. facebooking. youtubing. refocusing.

I'm absolutely passionate about what I do. I LOVE meeting new people and telling their stories but can anyone else relate with me here? Does anyone else feel this crazy need to get everything done like yesterday? Anyhoo, it was kind of stressin' me out and it's completely my fault. But I'm stoked to tell ya that I'm OK now with taking a break for day. A WHOLE day...to do whatever the heck I want. Sure, I talk to my clients and email if I need to. But, I really try to do stuff with the fam...and stuff for me...for a day. And ya know what I've learned? I am SO much more motivated when I do take that time for myself...to just rest and give my mind a break of what needs to be done. It's like I charge up for another awesome week of my life :) Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just preachin' to myself, but if there's an "amen" out there, be encouraged...it's totally OK to be lazy for a day. To do something completely for recreation's sake. To snuggle with the kids and watch movies in bed. To go to the park without the pressure of getting back home to edit. To keep the computer off...unless of course you want to youtube your brains out.

You NEED a break...weekly if ya can. God took a day to rest. Why shouldn't we?

So anyhoo, there's my little rant...I'm done now :) Hope everyone had a super fun Easter with their fams! I thought I would post a couple pics of our egg dying fun...this year, we did confetti eggs, or more formally known as cascarones. SO much fun! I totally was spacing that I could use my hole puncher to make the confetti, so you know what this mean mamma did? I made my kiddos (and myself) cut up streamers to make the confetti...because I didn't care to go out that day and buy some. And besides, it builds character right???? You know, workin' diligently at something for a long time towards a really good/fun goal?

Well, I'm definitely doing the hole puncher thing next year :)

To the right: Parker watching the first egg come out of the dye...

To the left (uh uh): 'now dip baby dip' oh woops...had a "Tootsie Roll" moment

anywayzzz when Ash was cuttin' confetti he dropped a long string and it happened to fall right on Sam's face...did he care? Obviously not...my dog is SO cute :)

Some of my faves!!!

logan {pArKoUr}

A couple of weeks ago had the awesome opportunity to meet Logan. He's a fun lovin', screamo rockin', baseball playin', street runnin' dude. Yeah. He's that cool :)

When Logan told me he could "street run" I wasn't sure what that meant. Then he showed me:

He plopped down from that last shot and proceeded to tell that if he was street running he would do that kind of stuff while runnin' around in the alleys and streets. Then I was like...."ohhhh...like Parkour!" Then of course my mind immediately visited "The Office" episode where they featured parkour. TOO FUNNY!

Logan, you're fun personality, talent and faith are gonna take you places you've never dreamed! I'm so excited to see the fun things that will happen in your life :)

Mmmm...yummy sunflare...

I'm pretty sure these next two tie as my fave shots of the day :)

And because you need a good laugh today, here's some awesome parkour stunts by none other than your crazy Office guys: